San Leandro Set to Invest $5.2 Million in Smart City Technologies

Yesterday, the online webzine State Scoop published a story with this headline about a new Smart LED lighting system that is about to be constructed in San Leandro. In addition to the significiant cost savings that this project will bring to the City, it is also the City’s initial foray into development of city-wide “Smart City” technologies. Read the entire story by clicking here.

The story evolved from last week’s announcement by the City of San Leandro that it is about to implement a new program that will make great strides in reaching the City Council’s adopted Climate Action Plan goals by investing in infrastructure retrofits and smart city applications. Thanks to a $5.2 million contract with Climatec, a Department of Energy certified Energy Services Company, the City is on track to achieve guaranteed energy savings resulting from the installation of an array of new projects and improvements that will off-set the cost of implementing the program.

The project began in 2014, with a request for proposals from firms that could design and implement a comprehensive package of utility savings measures and infrastructure upgrades. As part of its request, the City included a critical financial requirement: to make the project feasible, the infrastructure improvements needed to pay for themselves over time without the need for any upfront capital expenditures from the City’s general fund.

Energy efficiency through the implementation of smart technologies makes sense for San Leandro: “As we continue to live with limited natural resources, it’s important that the City lead by example in being more efficient with our municipal operations,” stated Public Works Director Debbie Pollart. “Budget savings that are achieved on our utility bills through this program will be reinvested to fund additional municipal efficiency projects.”

Hi Gene – The great thing about not being the first out of the gate, is that we’ve seen/heard ‘lessons learned’ from other cities. We will be using different Kelvin values for industrial/commercial areas, versus residential. That, along with the warmer LED should provide much improved visibility, but not at the expense of the overall residential neighborhood ambiance.

The really cool aspect of this project, is that with the Paradox Engineering ‘smart nodes’ placed on top of each light, we’ll have the ability to individually control each light pole. So for instance, if your bedroom is at the front of the house and the street light is a bit too much, we can dial it down.

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